Festive Food - Cranberries

Christmas may still be several weeks away but there is no escaping the influx of festive foods on display in the shops.  Fresh cranberries will also start making an appearance now and jars of cranberry sauce suddenly gain more prominence at this time of year.  At one time, Christmas was probably the only occasion that cranberries, in the form of cranberry sauce, would have been eaten in the UK.  That was until 1995, when the ‘Delia effect’ sent sales of cranberries rocketing after they featured in her ‘Winter Collection’ TV series and accompanying recipe book.  Since then they have become available all year round either dried, frozen or in juice form.  Delia can’t be totally credited with their ongoing popularity as there has also been plenty of publicity promoting their many health benefits. 

The small, sour, red berries are native to North America.  They were first used by Native Americans who used cranberries for food, dye and for their healing properties.  The cranberry vines grew wild in peat land that had been created by glaciers.  Folklore suggests that the name cranberry is derived from the Pilgrim name for the fruit – ‘crane berry’, so called because the small pink blossoms that appear in the spring resemble the head and bill of a crane. 

Cranberries were popular as a form of currency and in 1670, the Pilgrims realised that there was a danger of the wild cranberries being over harvested so they designated the Province Lands, at the tip of Cape Cod, as a conservation area.  Strict laws were then put in place regarding the right to pick cranberries.  Over a century later, more laws were passed forbidding the picking of unripe berries and in some places cranberry harvesting was restricted to local residents only.  Cultivation of cranberries began around 1816 and they are now grown commercially in the USA and Canada. 

Cranberries are harvested between September and November.  If the cranberries are to be sold as fresh fruit, they are dry harvested as it gives them a longer shelf life which is further enhanced by their high levels of the naturally occurring preservative, benzoic acid.  However, the majority of producers flood the bogs, loosen the cranberries and wait for them to float to the top, transforming the bogs into a large red expanse.

The air pockets that cause the cranberries to float are also the reason that they bounce!  The ‘cranberry bounce’ is a method for sorting the fruits, first discovered when a farmer poured some cranberries down his barn steps.  The freshest fruits bounced down to the bottom whilst the rotten or damaged ones stayed on the steps.  The steps method has been modified and the cranberry bounce is now tested on specially made bounce boards. 

The largest and most well known cranberry processor is Ocean Spray, an agricultural co-operative which was initially formed by three farmers in 1930.  They didn’t start exporting to the UK until 1970 and the first product to arrive, just in time for Christmas, was their original cranberry sauce.

© Suzie Banks 2009

 

Would you like to use this article?

You are welcome to reprint this article on your website or newsletter so long as you acknowledge me as the author and include a link to my website.  Therefore please include the following information:

© Suzie Banks 2009

www.aestheticsandgastronomy.co.uk